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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Any Silk Screeners In the House?

Our gun-print dress discussion was more than just thought-provoking—it was inspiring too! You all had so many fab ideas for designing and making your own prints. I was very lucky to connect with a budding fabric designer who is making me a gun-free print via Spoonflower inspired by the Betsey Johnson dress (more to come on that exciting front!).

On the subject of cool prints, commenter Sarah correctly predicted that I would love the designer Peach Berserk. Holy cow, have you readers seen her stuff? She's in the vein of Betsey Johnson, but she makes all her own prints (like the wonderful lobster print above). She also teaches silk screening in Toronto (any Torontoans want to adopt me?) and has written an awesome book on the subject. I love her dress designer feature, which lets you design a one-of-a-kind dress with the click of your mouse. (You can make the model's hair blue if you want!) She even sells yardage of her screen printed fabric online. So you can get your lobsters printed on candy pink dupioni if you want.

Basically, I want to be this woman when I grow up.

I'm reading the silk screening book now, and it's fascinating stuff. I have about a million ideas for fabric prints that I'd love to try, but the process seems so involved. So, my question is: have any of you tried screen printing? Am I right to be intimidated by all the supplies involved? Or is it no big deal? Dish, please!

P.S. If you're a New Yorker who could demonstrate silk screening to me, you should know that I make amazing chocolate-chocolate-espresso-cinnamon cookies and I'm not afraid to bribe you with them.

51 comments:

Oh wow! Silk screening has long held a lot of fascination for me. What gal wouldn't love to design and print her own fabric?! Just imagine the possibilities and combinations... *sigh* I still haven't had the time/space/funds to take a crack at it, but it's one of those things on my "do before I'm 40" list! ;)

Its been a while but years back I did a fair amount of silk screening. I had an art teacher who "used" a few of her students for commercial work. It was great learning experience and lots of fun. It is a bit involved. We would cut our own screens. Today I believe most commercial screens are done through the computer. I liked the cutting the best watching the film curl off the screen and become a design. Cleaning the screen, along with the fumes, was the worst but had to be done well to preserve its integrity. It is time and space consuming but great great fun. You would just love it.

I have my MFA in printmaking, worked in a screen printing shop, and teach silk screen from time to time with my high school art classes. When things are going right and you pick a simple design, it's fun and not too terribly difficult. But there are SO many things that can go wrong with the process if you are using photo emulsion (BTW... hand cut stencils are low-tech, but million times easier!). I've had really rotten luck with it the last few times I've tried it with my classes. Some of the prints turn out great, and some won't turn out at all... for no real logical reason. And it is a very laborious and messy process to develop, register, print, and then clean your screens - especially if you are doing a small run or don't have a good studio space.

I'm sure there will be some other people who say "silk screen is the funnest thing EVAR!!!11!!!", but personally, it frustrates the hell out of me and I don't often do it anymore. I'm all about Spoonflower for fabric printing now. :)

It's not silk-screening, but stenciling t-shirts with spray paint has worked pretty well for me recently. I'm tinkering with incorporating it into my own not-a-t-shirt sewing. It's so sharp, though it would hardly work well for all-over designs (unless I put a LOT of work into it).

I have silkscreened. It is a bit involved and takes up a lot of space. I've also burned my own screens. It's not hard, but it takes up a lot of time and space - to do it well at least. I had a lot of fun, but it would have been better if I had a nice long table, and a good space for rinsing the screen.

Sure. I'm a Torontonian, and I will adopt you. An you are from New York, so i don't think the snow and cold will bother you too much... Peach Berserk has been around here for such a long time, i sometimes forget all about the store, until I walk by and think, oh yeah, that place is really neat. Some of their designs are over-embellished by my tastes, but I really like the simple designs with the busy silk-screened fabric.

Screenprinting doesn't need to be scary. You can make the screen with organza, a sturdy wooden frame and a staple gun. You need to buy the squeegee, and you'll enjoy the process more if your squeegee fits well inside your screen. You can make a simple stencil with 'one side milled litho paper'- that heavy white paper, shiny on one side, loved by preschool teachers for fingerpainting and easy to find. With the shiny side of the paper up, cut your design with a stencil knife and put the clean screen on top. Squeegee the ink back and forth, and the ink will stick the paper to the underside of the screen. Peel away the parts of the design where the ink passes through and start printing. Working fast, you can get 2 or 3 dozen prints before your stencil falls apart or your screen gets clogged with bits of drying ink- easily enough to print the fabric for a dress. Don't stop for anything until you are finished, then wash the screen. Your fabric is a one-off art piece!

Go for it Gertie! Silkscreening can be a little messy, but it's pretty fun. I've seen DIY punks make screens almost like the last commenter mentioned, but using acrylic paint to make your design on the screen. Again, it will fall apart eventually but is an easier at home option than photo emulsion.

But why not see if you can get someone to make a screen for you? I'm sure NY is chock-a-block full of silkscreeners who'd make you up a proper photo-emulsion screen that you could use over and over again.

The photo-emulsion process would give you the best results for an intricate design. You just print off your design in black on an acetate, lay it over the screen that has been prepared with a light-sensitive emulsion, and expose the screen to light. The light cures the emulsion so you can't rinse it out of the screen. The areas where the black was on the acetate don't get exposed, so don't get cured, so you can rinse them out after with high pressure water.

It's a very efficient way of doing things if you've got the setup for it. Not so much a home process, but you can get a good quality image without having to have mad exacto skills. (And a long lasting screen). And I'm sure you're charming enough to convince someone to make you a screen for a reasonable fee.

I Love silk screening!! I haven't done any since I left college but I've been assured it can easily be done at home similar to how Mae^ described from what I can remember.It can look daunting but It's really easy. funnily enough one of the teachers in collage wanted to have a ago but was put off thinking it was too complicated he soon changed his mind once he'd tried it lol!fashbrickroad.blogspot.com

It actually sounds more intimidating than it actually is. You can make the screen from organza and use any sturdy wooden frame. The squeegy has to be bought but there are also ways of improvising this as well and still get excellent results.

I did textiles as my major in teacher's college and I had a lot of fun. One thing to take into consideration: though the books speak of all these lovely supplies the improvisations work just fine especially if you're on a tight budget. ex. using newsprint or regular paper as the stencil instead of the photo emulsion/stay-sharp method. Using paper stencils also allows you to save your screen so that it can be re-used instead of having to make a whole new one

I took a one day class here in Bklyn at the Etsy labs which they no longer offer. However, they've partnered with 3rd Ward and offer classes. http://www.3rdward.com/3rdwardclasses/category/screen-printingIt looks like they're all booked up right now but they should offer more. I purchased a Yudu for this purpose but haven't taken it out of the box. It's currently my cat's petting station.

Check out thermofax screens. There are services out there that will transfer your artwork onto a screen. I have done all kinds of screenprinting and this is by far the simpliest. Also, Jane Dunnewold's "complex cloth" is a wealth of information.

I purchased supplies a while ago and finally took the time to play around with it. I used the screen painting fluid technique, which is good if you don't have a lot of detail in your design. The photo emulsion technique seemed a little high tech to me at first, but then I found this GREAT tutorial that makes it look a bit less intimidating: http://lilblueboo.blogspot.com/2009/12/screen-printing-101-photo-emulsion.html . Hope that helps!

hey Gertie! I used to silkscreen lots and still have the tools, like screen frames and squeegees. these are nonprofessional, diy quality. I live in queens, and if you want to borrow them I'd be happy to lend as a starter kit before you make the plunge. I've been wanting to get back to printing, so if you want to play around, I'd be happy to help. My high wattage bulb might even still be good, and we could split the cost of emulsion and inks. get back to me if you're interested! e.gin.ee at gmail

i've never silkscreened - i prefer stencilling (i use the freezer paper method) - but a lot of my friends are in bands and they silk screen their own merch instead of paying someone else to do it. it's pretty easy, just time-consuming & sometimes the materials get pricey. there are even ways of making ~white trash~ stencils (like http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/3674467.html?page=1) if you don't want to drop $100 on supplies just to find out you hate it.

At the college where I work, we have silk screens in the arts department. They are really easy to use if you don't try and add 1000 colors! You can even make your own at-home silk screen using some fabric and a a few easy-to-find supplies. Basically, you draw your design on the fabric and then proceed to make it into a stencil by using Mod Podge. Here is a great tutorial I myself used:http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/3674467.html

You might not want to use it to make a huge amount of printing, but for decorations and such, it's great!

I've done a fair amount of silk screening, and even screened my own wedding invites! It's actually pretty easy and cheap to create an at-home set up. I used my bathroom for a darkroom, and a clamp-on shop light with a 500w bulb from a photography shop to burn the screens.

You can DIY pretty much all aspects! I think it just takes some practice and experimentation, since as someone pointed out above, there are a lot of variables when exposing screens, much like printing film.

Gosh, I haven't been into Peach Berserk for ages, and I just walked past it over the weekend. It's a very cute little store. Rather visually loud, but that's all part of the charm! I always meant to take one of Kingi Carpenter's silk screening classes but never got around to it. Now I'm no longer a TO resident, just a Torontonian at heart so I guess I won't be taking one any time soon.

I had no idea you could buy yardage from her, I'm going to check that out right now!

Thanks for bringing me back to my senses. I've thought about silk screening, and I might try a class or two in the future to learn to make simple designs, but I always suspected it would be a lot of messy, time-consuming work, with possibly frustrating results.

I have never done any screen printing but I'm intrigued by the process. I have a book you may find helpful" "Printing by Hand" by Lena Corwin. She presents a number of different printing methods that require fewer supplies (stamping, stencils, etc.) as well as screen printing. You might be able to achieve the result you're looking for with a simpler method. Thanks for sharing your creative process with us!

I did do a bit of silkscreening while in undergrad (fine art) and on fabric (silk, rayon, cotton) in grad school (fashion design). I still have all the silkscreen equipment needed to make screens and prints, including textile inks and squeagies. It's a bit of an investment in supplies and it does require some space, but it is a LOT of fun. The trick to screen printing large pieces of fabric (apposed to single motifs) is getting the repeat placed correctly and getting your fabric to lay straight. Also, the larger your repeat the larger your screen needs to be. I used to have 3'x3' screens and printing with them was a bit of a production. If you have any questions or want to borrow any equipment let me know. I'm in Brooklyn.

You do NOT need a lot of supplies to get started! Its really easy. Take a look at my screenprinting setup: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlebemle/4701883295/in/set-72157616460721759/I don't do any of my designs on the computer - I hand paint acetate with waterproof india ink, and it works WONDERFULLY.

You just need a few simple materials, and patience. Hand-cut stencils are super easy, but it isn't too hard to do the photo emulsion method. I very much recommend a book called "Print Liberation: The Screen Printing Primer" as it really focuses on how to print well in a home where you might not have a dedicated space.I bet you would make the prettiest prints, Gertie!

I teach sewing and patternmaking at Make and 3rd Ward. I don't have any silkscreening classes on the docket right now, I live in BK and would be willing to have a screen printing party at my place (I have TONS of supplies)

I taught myself how to silk screen last year from Kingi's DVD with the intent of printing my own fabric. I highly recommend getting it because it's really nice to watch someone else do it first if you can't take a class. I also second the people who say it's messy and fussy. But like anything else you will find a groove, and the more you do it the better you'll get.

Both my aunts lived in toronto when I was growing up (in Vancouver), and trips out there always included a trip to Peach Berserk. My high-school grad photo skirt is from there--it's hilarious in that it's floor-length multicoloured patchwork of a bazillion different silkscreen prints. I wore it with doc boots.

I've used products from this company before for doing t-shirts: http://ezscreenprint.com/

It's the same idea as silk screening, but they're pre-coated with photo-sensitive emulsion so you just have to put a black and white transparency of your design on top, and then expose it to light (I sat it outside on a sunny day). It's kind of a poor woman's silk screening setup (with less stuff to store afterwards and probably less money if you're only doing a few).

I'd never considered it before, but these would totally work for printing a repeating design on fabric... I may have to give that a go!

Because it's a type of printmaking, I vaguely know the process. ;) Go find yourself an art student who specializes in printmaking, Gertie! I didn't make it far enough into printmaking courses to know the whole process in detail, but it was taught.

I love silk screening! I prefer the photo emulsion method, it's a lot more precise and I love that I have multiple designs just laying around, they make for quick gifts!

I totally say go for it Gertie! I have a teeny tiny apartment and I can still manage a half decent set up in my place.

I used to love Peach Berserk, but then I really started to examine the construction of the clothes... Not too impressive is all I'll say I guess. I actually work right across the street from the store, and I have to say that it is very visually stimulating from the outside, even now, when the city is covered in gray slush.

PEACH IS THE BEST! I LOVE KINGI AND NICOLE!! They are amazing teachers. I took they're Silkscreening class a couple of Sundays ago. They made me feel so at home and comfortable. It make it really easy to design my print...very relaxed!! I ended up printing 20 tee shirts that day!Anyways to end thisI love printing and its thanks to these ladies.P.S. THEY ARE HILARIOUS!! My face hurt at the end of the day from laughing!

Excellent - I'm not technically a Torontonian, living just outside its borders but it's close enough that I can hop on GO Transit and get me there. I'd love to take a silk screening course and Gertie, if you wanna be adopted, you're more than welcome any time. With all the chaos that goes on here on a day to day basis, you could probably move in unannounced and it would take me a few days (weeks?) to notice! LOL.

There is so much you can do with silk screening. For Christmas I had 2 wedding photos silk screened on loose woven linen (so it was sort of abstract looking) and sewed them on other pcs of material to make wall hangings. It turned out great! I had a hard time finding someone in the city but found a great person for it where I like in Jersey City. Let me know if you would like his contact. :)

Oh, man! How I wish I lived in New York! I'm interested in silk-screening too. I was first inspired to decorate t-shirts when I was shopping and could only find ones with really stupid shit on them [I had not yet fully discovered the Interwebs back then]. You can make your own screen-printing frame and it costs way less that the kits. Just Google it; there's lots of info on it. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

I did her workshop 2 years ago. I took the bus from Montreal, did the workshop, stayed at the hostal and came back after. It really worth the trip and you could learn everything in one day. I enjoyed it so much that I am still silkscreening...

My daughter and I have taken the silk screening with Kingi at Peach Berserk. We had a lot of fun and learned alot. My daughter is a Kinesiology student and photocopied some skeletons from her anatomy text book which we silk screened on to an old bed sheet which I then turned in to a slip cover for her desk chair. If you ever get to Toronto Peach Beserk is located on Queen street which is the go to place for fabric, wool and a great day out.